Pascaline
Pascalina
- Date
- 1642-1645 · confidence high
- Place
- Rouen, France
- Credited to
- Blaise Pascal
- People
- 👤 Blaise Pascal1623–1662
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A mechanical wheel-based adder with a gravity-driven carry mechanism (sautoir), built to help his father collect taxes; around twenty were made. The first commercially sold calculator, granted a royal privilege (1649).
Schickard preceded him by twenty years, but Pascal was unaware of his work.
What it led to
- Mechanical calculators as prestige and office objects
- The idea that arithmetical reasoning can be mechanised
- Philosophical reflection on machine and mind (Pascal, Leibniz)